OREGON WALNUTS 



grafted transplanted trees in the Northwest now testify. I 

 would treat the roots of the walnuts very much the same as 

 those of any fruit tree. While planting can be done in the fall 

 in many parts of the western and southern parts of Oregon, 

 probably late winter and early spring would, on the whole, be 

 the most desirable. Some men have advocated that, instead 

 of planting trees, nuts be planted in the field where the orchard 

 is to be developed; that three to five nuts be planted in holes 

 where the tree is desired and all but the strongest of these seed- 

 lings be discarded. I have never seen a good orchard developed 

 in this way and doubt its practicability. It certainly is more 

 expensive and harder to take care of young seedlings scattered 

 over a forty-acre field, than it would be to have them in compact 

 rows in the nursery, where they could have the best of care. 



There are various systems of planting the orchard. Where 

 the filler system is to be used, the setting of the trees by what is 

 known as the quincunx system is perhaps the best. In this 

 system the trees are set in fives, the permanent plantings being 

 in the form of squares or rectangles, and the filler being the 

 tree which is planted in the center of the square. About 75 per 

 cent more trees can be planted by this system than by the square 

 or rectangular. The square or rectangular system is the best 

 where one wishes to intercrop extensively; or where it is the 

 aim of the orchardists to grow truck crops, berries or similar 

 crops, this system will prove the more satisfactory. It does 

 not give as many trees to the acre, neither are the trees equally 

 distant, but it does allow for tillage better than any other 

 system. 



The last system is known as the hexagonal. In this system 

 the trees are set, as you might say, in circles of six, with a tree 

 in the center of each circle. The trees are all equally distant, as 

 they are planted the radius of the circle apart. This system does 

 not allow for tillage or intercropping as well as the two first 

 systems. 



There are three systems of pruning the young trees. In the 

 first system, I wish to describe, the trees are cut back when they 

 are planted to two or three buds. These buds are allowed to 



